Have high-heel hangover? Here's help

Karen Gram, Vancouver Sun01.09.2012

According to Bowman, who is also the director of the Restorative Exercise Institute in California, foot pain is the canary in the coal mine of human health. Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are the poison.

We often talk about the post-holiday hangover: the sluggish feeling we get from all the food and drink consumed. But there is another hangover many women experience. It starts in the feet and works it's way up. We're talking about the high-heel hangover.

We all know that high heels are bad for our feet, but there are so many fabulous heels out there and they sure can dress up an outfit and make our legs look great. So we often ignore the obvious and pretend that a well made, well fitting pair of heels is the answer.

Maybe we don't wear them every day, but during the holiday season, with parties every other day, we donned them more often than usual.

And now we are suffering the high-heel hangover.

"Foot health is a really big issue for people over the age of 40, to the point where one in four can't really walk without foot pain," says U.S.-based bio-mechanics expert Katy Bowman, author of Every Woman's Guide to Foot Pain Relief.

"Your foot pain is like an early indicator of the state of everything," she says. "Every other ailment of the body, from your body composition to even something like depression, all of those ailments are affected by physical mobility. But more than that, foot pain tells us that our knees, hips and back are at risk.

Most of us totally ignore our feet. We may exercise all the other parts of our bodies, but do nothing south of the ankle. Many of us can't spread our toes, fewer still can lift each toe individually.

That is where the problem begins, says Bowman. "The feet are just breaking down under the weight of the body because there is no muscle to resist it."

Then we mess with our posture by wearing high heels.

If we are standing with perfect posture, our pelvis is in the middle of a vertical line from our head to our heels, which as the densest structure of the foot are the best equipped to take our weight, says Bowman.

But when we wear heels, we push the pelvis forward positioning our weight over the front of the feet and loading the small bones and tissues of the forefoot. Hello bunions, fasciitis and hammer toes.

Wearing heels also causes the calf muscle to shorten, which in turn causes a cascade of problems, including knee and hip osteo arthritis. Research has shown people who have worn high heels regularly for more than 20 years have calves 13-per-cent shorter than everyone else.

"That is what causes the knee osteo arthritis, because the calf muscle attaches above the knee joint so the tighter the muscle the less joint space your knee has."

Even low heels can do the damage, says Bowman, adding there is no such thing as a sensible heel, except "in same way as there is a sensible cigarette." If we must wear heels, we should treat them like we treat dessert, she says.

"There is a consequence that comes with eating a lot of desserts and there are steps you can take to mitigate the effects. The same thing goes with high heels.

"If you are going to wear them, instead of trying to come up with a healthier way to do so, you want to come up with another daily habit or habit you cultivate every time you wear them that undoes some of the permanent tissue changes so that you don't have to deal with the full effects of wearing them."

These habits should include stretching, strengthening and wearing flat, flexible footwear or bare feet the rest of the time. Fifteen minutes of exercise a day is enough to protect your feet, says Bowman, and no fancy equipment is needed.

So avoid the hangover. Limit your time in heels and mitigate the damage they do. Here are four basic exercises that anyone can do, even as they watch TV or work at their desk.

Calf Stretch: Put your hands on a wall, place one foot in front of the other and keeping both heels on the ground, bend the front knee until you can feel the stretch in your back calf. Hold 30 seconds. A second calf stretch can be done on stairs; hang one heel off the stair until you can feel the stretch. Hold 30 seconds. Switch.

"A calf stretch is what anyone who wears any shoes should do, because even your general athletic shoe is technically 1½-2 inches (3.8-5 cm) in the heel, so that is a high heel, too," says Bowman. "So calf stretch, calf stretch, calf stretch."

Toe spread: Sit in a chair and rest your feet on an ottoman or low table. Spread your toes so that there is a space between each one. Repeat. (if you can't do this, start with wearing pedicure spacers).

Toe lift: Standing straight, lift your big toes off the ground while keeping all the other toes on the ground. Then lift the other toes one by one.

Tennis ball massage: While seated, roll a tennis ball under your feet to stretch your plantar fascia. If your feet are inflamed or tired, roll your foot over a bottle of water that has been frozen.

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